Did you know:

The best-selling novel of 1945 was “Forever Amber” by Kathleen Winsor, a book banned as pornography by 11 states; the non-fiction best-seller was “Brave Men,” by Ernie Pyle, the beloved war correspondent who lost his life in Okinawa in April when he was struck down by a Japanese machine-gunner as he rode in a jeep.

E.B. White’s children’s classic, “Stuart Little,” was published in 1945. Journalists recognize him not only for another children’s book, “Charlotte’s Web,” but also as White of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style.

On Sat., July 28, 1945, at 9:49 a.m., an army B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, killing 14 people.

Dr. Benjamin Spock’s “Baby and Child Care,” one of which landed at my house on the birth of our first child in the 1950s, emerged in 1946 as the authority for raising babies.

From 1946 came those wonderful Irving Berlin hits, “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly.”

Nineteen-forty-six was the year the $6.95 Timex watches appeared and the Roosevelt dime was introduced less than a year after the April 12, 1945, death of our 32nd president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Americans delighted in “The Woody Woodpecker Song,” available on 78 RPM records in 1947. It was the first and only song from an animated short subject to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song.

That year you could fly around the world on an airplane if you could afford the $1,700 ticket.

On Oct. 5, 1947, President Harry Truman made the first-ever televised presidential address from the White House. He requested that farmers and distillers reduce grain use and asked the public to voluntarily forgo meat on Tuesdays, eggs and poultry on Thursdays, and to save a slice of bread each day.

The Slinky, that coiled-wire toy, got peoples’ attention in 1948. Hopalong Cassidy and the Lone Ranger shows made their television debut. And there was more good stuff, too. The McDonald brothers reorganized their barbecue businesses into a hamburger stand using production line principles. Another goody: prepared cake mixes.

The presidential election made huge headlines in 1948. Harry S. Truman triumphed, snatching the office from the favored Thomas E. Dewey. The Chicago Tribune, confident of Dewey’s win, appeared with the headline, “Dewey Defeats Truman.”

One gallon of gas cost twenty-five cents in 1948; a pack of cigarettes cost twenty-one cents; and a quart of milk cost twenty-one cents.

In 1949, LPs and 45s pushed aside the standard 78 RPMs and the Latin Samba overtook the ballroom dance scene. “South Pacific” was the Broadway hit of the year.

In 1950, the Peanuts Comic Strip began its first run on Oct. 2, 1950, continuing to February 13, 2000, and is still going strong with reruns.

Back to literature, the 1951 best-selling novel was “From Here to Eternity.”

Dennis the Menace first appeared on March 12, 1951 in 16 newspapers. (Wow, Dennis, you’ve aged well.)